National resilience rise following the Hamas invasion of southern Israel as an indicator of collective post-traumatic growth

The present study employs 12 measurements of national resilience (NR) as evidence for the collective post-traumatic growth (CPTG) of the Israeli public in response to Hamas's 7.10.2023 invasion of southern Israel. Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is a positive psychological development experienced as a result of a struggle with traumatic events. It was extensively investigated at the individual level. Similar growth at the collective level has been studied less often and only recently was theoretically recognized. The available CPTG studies that used different names to describe this collective growth employed case studies of highly stressful or traumatic events to infer its existence. These studies demonstrated that highly stressful incidents can produce social solidarity, a stronger feeling of cohesion, a positive emotional atmosphere, a surge of patriotism, or a stronger faith in governmental decisions. Most of these studies do not compare pre and post-trauma community responses. Our study seems to be the first to demonstrate CPTG empirically by comparing national resilience before and during war. The concept of CPTG refers to perceived positive changes at a societal level after a collective trauma. It takes the form of heightened post-traumatic solidarity and a sense of unity. NR shares several features with CPTG: trust in the government and its leader, the national institutes to cope with extreme adversity, social solidarity, and patriotism. We claim that a significant upsurge of NR following the Hamas invasion of southern Israel constitutes a marker of CPTG. We employed a quasi-longitudinal method, with some repeated measurements, at twelve distinct substantial stressful Israeli events over two and a half years. Each measurement represented the Jewish-Israeli population and responded to the same online questionnaire. Results showed that in agreement with our hypothesis, the NR expressed in response to the Hamas invasion was significantly higher than each NR score of the previously investigated adversities and conflicts. The discussion pointed out the need to improve our ability to sustain the public spirit of CPTG over time and our understanding of antecedent conditions that can transform collective traumas into CPTG.